I had written an entire article on the debate about whether or not the iPad is a pure consumption device, but realised I could summarise the entire debate into a single sentence: it's the difference between 'suitable' and 'ideal'. You can ride a unicycle from Amsterdam to Paris, but that doesn't mean it's better than just taking the car or the Thalys.

Think about it carefully. If you cannot generate the code of another system on one computing device; because of _arbitrary_ restrictions put into place by the manufacturer, then is it truly a computing system?

Can one be productive on an iPad? Yes, absolutely. Can one make iPad software, that can make iPad software, on an iPad ? No.

I wish apple didn't restrict the iPad as much as they do, but there are practical and functional IDEs available on the app store. For example, I use Python for iOS on my iPad - it's fully permissible under apple rules, I can make basic software, it's run by python (somewhere in between compiled and interpreted due to the design of python), and I can say make a python program that can be used to make iPad software inside it.

The iPad is turing complete, that is not in question. It's just that it's not usually the best or most practical tool for development or content creation in general.

It’s okay, I understand what Turing Complete actually means, I was just approaching the matter from a very high, philosophical level.

If in the future the devices that you use cannot do anything without being slaves to another device (desktop computer, App Store, Apple), then is that an indication that we’ve gone backwards, or forwards?

This. And it doesn't help that the shiny new technologies are built on the ruthless abuse of workers (and slaves) in the third world. As a society, we've become junkies for the fruits of exploitation. This is not a good state of affairs.

(But two thirds of the economy rides on the sale and purchase of frivolous, unnecessary stuff. So by all means, buy! Waste and inefficiency are virtues, damn the bloodshed!)

This. And it doesn't help that the shiny new technologies are built on the ruthless abuse of workers (and slaves) in the third world. As a society, we've become junkies for the fruits of exploitation. This is not a good state of affairs.

(But two thirds of the economy rides on the sale and purchase of frivolous, unnecessary stuff. So by all means, buy! Waste and inefficiency are virtues, damn the bloodshed!)

You know, I often hear this said about tablets; they are just frivolous, unnecessary devices that nobody really needs, and we are exploiting the labor of people working in sweatshop conditions just so we can have our toys.
And this is usually said by somebody who owns at least one television (probably a big one too) and video game console. And the irony is never lost on me. Heck, at least you can read on a f**king tablet

Well lucky you. I don't play console games, nor do I watch television.

I do have a few computers, which I sometimes use for frivolous things (like posting on OSNews!). Some are used, others were new when I bought them, but I intend to keep them all running for as long as possible; and at this point I will not buy anything brand new if one of them fails.

I don't delude myself; I'm still a hypocrite. But I at least try to be a bit less of one.

(Also, my being a hypocrite does not in any way imply that I am wrong.)

While you're technically not wrong, I often wonder why you (and I mean 'you' as in people in general) always make these kinds of remarks when discussing tablets (and occasionally smartphones), but rarely, if ever, when we talk about video game consoles and the like. I don't think I've ever read a comment on here (or any other tech site) that the 360/PS3/etc. are just toys, and people are wasting their money on them, and/or exploiting sweatshop labor in third world countries. Why is that?

Is it because people are replacing their tablets every couple of years or so, making it a wasteful expenditure? This isn't really all that surprising... since the tablet as we know it today is still relatively new, you can get quite an increase in performance and functionality by upgrading every couple of years. This is the same as it was back in the 80's/early 90's, when I used to upgrade my PC about every 3 years or so, because the jump in performance was very noticeable, and I didn't know how to build my own back then. Now days, unless you're using apps or games that demand a lot of horsepower, the PC you buy today is essentially the same as the one you bought 5+ years ago, so saying that you rarely upgrade your PC isn't all that impressive Once the tablet market matures, I don't think you will see these frequent upgrades anymore.

And BTW, just because somebody owns a tablet, doesn't mean they're using it ONLY for frivolous purposes, so don't be so quick to pass judgement.

Oh, and as for tablets being flawed for mainly being consumption devices, that's like saying a stereo is flawed because you can't make music with it. Why not just enjoy it for what it was created for (or just don't buy one), and not spend so much time worrying about what it can't do?

I don't think I've ever read a comment on here (or any other tech site) that the 360/PS3/etc. are just toys

Maybe because nobody has ever labeled them "post-PC" or wrote articles upon articles about the death of notebooks in general and netbooks in particular? ;-)

I'm not saying that there's no space for tablets, but let's keep in mind that they're usually an addition to desktops/notebooks already in the household, not to mention that Steve Jobs himself introduced the iPad by asking:

"Is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that's between a laptop and a smartphone?"

You know, I often hear this said about tablets; they are just frivolous, unnecessary devices that nobody really needs, and we are exploiting the labor of people working in sweatshop conditions just so we can have our toys.
And this is usually said by somebody who owns at least one television (probably a big one too) and video game console. And the irony is never lost on me. Heck, at least you can read on a f**king tablet

it doesn't help that the shiny new technologies are built on the ruthless abuse of workers (and slaves) in the third world. As a society, we've become junkies for the fruits of exploitation. This is not a good state of affairs.

(But two thirds of the economy rides on the sale and purchase of frivolous, unnecessary stuff. So by all means, buy! Waste and inefficiency are virtues, damn the bloodshed!)

Become? It's nothing new, didn't happen just recently.

And useless, positional, "luxury" (or even veblen) goods have a long, long history.

Whether the iPad makes a nice content creation device depends entirely on what it is you're creating. For music and other artistic creation, it can be amazing when paired with the right apps. For documents, spreadsheets, etc it's also quite nice, although if you're going to write long documents you'll probably want a keyboard. You can even do some nice web design on it, although getting your pages off the iPad and on to your web server is much more of a pain than it should be, since Apple only lets documents exist in one application (if they really want to hide the filesystem, then they should have a way to send or share documents from one application to another). However, if you're primarily programming or doing other backend-related tasks (databases, etc) then it's probably not what you want and a laptop or Windows 8 tablet would fit your needs better. Use the right device for the right task, that's my way.

"My favourite piece of information is that Branwell Brontë, brother of Emily and Charlotte, died standing up leaning against a mantelpiece, in order to prove it could be done."

It's a good read, especially the part where he (an early Mac adopter and occasional contributor to MacUser and MacWorld) writes:

"My PowerBook is charging itself up. I'm still not using it, though because I am now lying in the bath. So I'm still using the Psion. I have never ever written anything in the bath before. Paper gets damp and steamy, pens won't write upside down, typewriters hurt your tummy, and if you are prepared to use a PowerBook in the bath then I assume that it isn't your own PowerBook. So the thing is, it can be done. You can actually write on a palmtop computer, which is something I didn't realise before."

That said, most of the articles I read fail to make a compelling case for the iPad as a content creation device: usually what's get done could be done on just about anything else, and at times it even seems that it's more a case of "in spite of (the limitations)" rather than "because of (the additional functionality)".

Ah, Psion. I had a 3a and a Revo and I loved them both. The problem was not getting stuff in: Psion keyboards were rather good. The problem was getting stuff out.

Once data was in the Psion, getting it into a PC and into a format readable by the programs of the day was a black art. Not impossible, there were cables and transfer programs, but not as easy as "email this to myself, Siri" or "share to Dropbox".

But ... to the point. Given a choice, I create on the iMac rather than on the iPad. But when the creative urge hits and that choice is not available, I don't shrug my shoulders and say "Gee, what a pity I only have a consumption device with me ...". Of course, that is also dictated by the text-based nature of the stuff I create. If the iPad is not available, I pull out the iPod Touch, If that is not available, I scrounge for pen and paper, and if there is no pen and paper around I will scratch patterns in the dirt with a pointy stick!

"I am now lying in the bath. So I'm still using the Psion. I have never ever written anything in the bath before. [...] So the thing is, it can be done. You can actually write on a palmtop computer, which is something I didn't realise before."

From what I see, this was largely rediscovered by a non-trivial degree of the general population, with mobile phones.

Of course, the writing in their case being more of a SMS or IM kind, but still (though particularly the more "live" IM makes some interlocutors somewhat uncomfortable...)

And I Actually sometimes wonder about getting some surplus Psion 5, to try it out as cheap "notes on the go" machine, their keyboards look curiously nice.

Gruber is just an idiot fanboi (yes, Gruber, you are); his blog is the perfect illustration of "confirmation bias".

Damon Albarn make an album with his iPad two years ago: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/11/13/gorillaz
Has the guy done anything else with his gadget ever since? Has Gruber noticed? Hell no. He does not have time, picking only convenient facts is a full-time job.

I'm tired of this discussion whether iPad is good at traditional PC-tasks. I guess some of them it is bad, some of them it is good (and in between).

What is more interesting is the stuff that the iPad does well that traditional PCs don't do well at all. A good example here is sketching. I have tried many sketching apps for Windows and Mac, but none could stack up to a piece of physical paper. With Paper for iPad (the app!) I've stopped using physical paper all togheter. It's so nice to just send my sketches to Dropbox for archiving instead of scanning them in.

I imagine others have other use cases where the iPad is better than other alternatives as well. Some musicians I know use the iPad instead of lugging large stack of note sheets.

People use their Pads for lots of stuff, including creating stuff. Doing some stuff is much better on an iPad than on a computer (including a laptop), doing some other some stuff is better on a traditional computer with a keyboard and mouse, doing some stuff is OK on both. So what? Who cares?

This endless debate about whether the iPad is a device for consuming or creating is just sad, tired semantics.

Mostly it's pushed by people with a vested interest in old desktop technology or who are just peeved that Apple dominates the tablet market.

Interestingly Apple have never tried to collapse the tablet and touch OS into the desktop OS. Apple seems to think that tablets/phones are a distinctly different product category to laptops/desktops and thus they have two separate operating systems.

Microsoft on the other hand seem to want to conflate the two but that's because their strategy is built upon defending Windows, so their touch/phone/tablet strategy is designed to extend Windows rather than build something separate and tailored for touch. We will see in the next few years whether that is a good strategy.

For me, the main use of my iPad is for creating music. That's what I bought it for, as an instrument of creating content. Anyone that thinks tablets are only for consumption are using it wrong, or haven't tried one.

Touch is so natural to use, that my 2 year old picked up how to use it rather easily, but only after a while did he learn to drag and drop using a mouse.

You know you can create content with paper and a pencil? You do not need a device to "create" and certainly no xyz-pad-or-something.
Most artists start to sketch on paper before they bring it into the one or the other computer, be it apple, some windowsbox or even (believe it or not) a linux-box.

The creator is the human being, not the device. If you forget that, you have lost contact to reality.